Late Night Talks (Sanders Sides)
by enogk07
Summary: Virgil is having a hard time and goes to Logan for help. But Logan can't help if he won't explain what's bothering him.


Virgil glanced at the clock on his bedside. 10:30. He lifted up his headphones to hear if anyone was awake, and finally took a chance and stepped out into the hallway.

He stood in his doorway for a moment, considering his options. Roman would just use the experience to come up with new nicknames, he was sure of it. And Patton would just smother him-that wasn't going to help. He didn't want to be coddled and told everything would be okay, especially when Patton would probably just tell him it would be okay anyway just to make him feel better; that didn't mean it was true. There was only one person who could help.

Logan's room was open, but he could see the light was off. Virgil peered in the room, but jumped when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He spun around.

Logan was standing in front of him, a slice of toast in his hand. "Oh, hello! Sorry I missed you, I was just getting a snack. Feel free to come in though," he said. He switched on the light, and Virgil followed him inside. Logan sat down on his bed, and Virgil opted for the desk chair.

"So...how was your day?" Virgil said after a moment.

"Oh, it was alright! Thomas didn't have any work to do today, but I managed to read a few new books of my own with my time off. What about you?"

'I watched Thomas poison himself and did nothing to stop it,' Virgil thought. But what he said was, "Not much."

"Ah...fair enough." The two sat in silence for a while, and suddenly Logan picked up his fidget cube from his desk and handed it to his guest.

Virgil looked up, startled; he hadn't realized that he was wringing his hands so much, but they both knew that it helped him stop. He grabbed the toy and looked away, frustrated that he lost his chance to maybe make it seem like he just wanted to chat.

"Well, anyway," Virgil continued, trying to lighten the mood, "have you seen Patton or Roman around today? What are they up to?"

"I saw Patton briefly during breakfast, but as Thomas was hanging out with his friends for most of today, he was busy with that. I am not aware of how Roman spent his day, however."

"Oh. Well, that's good! Patton does like getting to be with Thomas' friends." He tried to smile.

Finally after a few more minutes of silence, Logan stood up and opened the door. "Alright, time for bed," he said firmly.

Virgil looked up. "Huh?"

"Come on, we've been through this before," Logan continued. "I want to help, but if you can't tell me what's bothering you, you can't stay here."

Virgil started wringing his hands again, but got up anyway. The two walked into the hallway and headed into Virgil's room; the door was open and the light was still on.

And, as Virgil soon realized, so was his computer. The Google Search "eating expired dairy products" was clearly visible on the screen, with most of the links already purple.

He rushed over to close his computer. "Yeah, well, I guess I'll get to bed now. I guess I'll see you arou-"

"Thomas is not going to get sick," Logan said evenly.

Virgil tensed up, but didn't turn around. "What?"

"Thomas is not going to get sick."

Tears sprung up in Virgil's eyes. "You don't know that."

"Yes I do."

Virgil turned to face Logan. "But you can't prove it!" He covered his ears with his hands and sat on his bed, curled up in a ball.

Logan sat on the edge and waited, at first patiently and then more anxiously, as the effects of Virgil's room started to take over. He lifted his hand to put it on Virgil's back, but then changed his mind. Instead he bent his head and met the anxious side's eyes. "Hey, Virge...would it be okay if I got Patton in here? Just to get you out of this. Then you and I can talk."

Virgil looked up and nodded. Logan got up to leave, but as an afterthought went to carry Virgil's laptop back to his room.

Meanwhile Virgil went back to his ball, until he felt a hand on his shoulder a few minutes later. "Hey, kiddo. What's up?"

Virgil looked up and shrugged. His hands were off his ears now, but he was still curled up. Without saying anything, Patton enveloped Virgil in a hug for a few moments, and finally the latter relaxed.

"That's better," Patton said, and smoothed Virgil's hair. He pulled down Virgil's covers. "Look, it's late. Let's just get you to bed, all right?"

Virgil crawled into bed and let Patton tuck him in. Patton gave Virgil's hand one last squeeze, and left the room. Logan, who had been standing by, came back to sit on the bed again.

"Look, it's true that it's not great to eat things that are a day or so old. And Thomas should probably go grocery shopping soon. But nothing terrible is going to happen. At most he'll get a little sick, but it'll be over in a day or so. That's probably all you're experiencing now."

"Yeah, but expiration dates exist for a reason, don't they?" Virgil said, glancing up at the logical side.

"They do, but certainly nothing that happens would be terrible or irreversible."

"But you don't know that, though. Think of all the people who have died because they thought something was no big deal. Who's to say Thomas isn't one of those people?"

Logan thought for a moment. "Well, I can't say that for sure. It would be irresponsible of me to promise that. But what I can say is that the only reason you hear about those stories in the first place is specifically because they're so uncommon. Unfortunately, that's just how the news works these days."

Virgil looked down. "Yeah, I know that. It's just...I don't know, I should have done something. I should have stopped him. All of this is my fault." He let out a sigh of relief, finally having gotten to the root of the issue.

Logan cocked his head. "Hey, it's not your fault. It's true, your job is to keep Thomas from getting hurt, but I think the reason you didn't step in is because deep down, you knew that it wasn't a huge deal if he ate it. You just have to keep in mind that a lot of things in life work themselves out. He'll have a rough couple of days, but then it'll be over and hopefully he won't do it again."

Virgil gave a half smile, and sunk further down into the bed.

Logan looked at him hesitantly before saying what had been on his own mind the whole time. "Hey, Virgil...can I give you a hug?"

Virgil sat up, a little surprised, but nodded. He opened his arms, and the two hugged each other tightly.

"Just...don't hesitate so much to tell me these things next time, alright? I'm on your side. We all are. Whatever obstacles Thomas faces, none of us have to grapple with them alone. We're all a team here, got it?"

Virgil smiled for real, and gave Logan one last squeeze for good measure before letting go. He drew the covers back up over himself, and Logan left the room.


End file.
